202 



KNOWLEDGE 



[July 2, 1888. 



be logical, even in its better days.) Both works were 

 written long before Knowledge began its career. They 

 were submitted by Messrs. Longmans to the Rev. Mr. 

 Griffin, of O.spriuge, a Senior Wrangler of long standing and 

 well known as a mathematician of great power. After 

 carefully examining both works, he recommended Messrs. 

 Longmans to accept them for publication, and accordingly 

 an agreement was drawn up in regard to these two works, 

 and this agreement — which lies before me as I write — bears 

 a date preceding the Lssue of the first number of this 

 magazine. The effort of the ,S'. 7?. to be disagreeable was 

 well tiled, however. 



THACKERAY 



AND THE 

 REVIEW." 



SATURDAY 



ERE is my Sat'iinhcy Revieiv, and in an 

 American paper subsequently sent to me, 

 I light, astonished, on an account of the 

 dinners of my friend and publisher, which 

 nre described as ' tremendously heavy,' of 

 the conversation (which does not take 

 place) and of the guests assembled at the 

 table. 1 am informed that the proprietor of the Cornhill, 

 and the host on these occasions, is ' a very good man but 

 totally unread,' and that on ray asking him whether Dr. 

 Johnson was dining behind the screen, he said, ' God bless 

 my soul, my dear sir, there's no person by the name of 

 Johnson here, nor any one behind the screen,' and that a 

 roar of laughter cut him short. I am informed that I have 

 touched up a contributor's article ; that I once said to a 

 literary gentleman, who was proudly pointing to an anony- 

 mous article as his writing, ' Ah I I thought I recognised 

 your hoof in it.' . . . Then the graceful writer passes on 

 to the dinners, of which it appears the editor of this maga- 

 zine ' is the great gun, and comes out with all the geniality 

 in his power.' Now suppose this charming intelligence is 

 untrue. Suppose the publisher never made the remark 

 beginning, ' God bless my soul, my dear sir,' kc, nor any- 

 thing resembling it ? Suppose nobody roared with laughing. 

 Suppose the editor of the Cornlnll M(iija:ine never ' touched 

 up ' one single line of the contrilnition which bears the mark 

 of his hand ? Suppose he never said to any literary gentle- 

 man 'I recognised your hoof in any periodical what- 

 ever? . . . Suppose this back door gossip should be utterly 

 blundering and untrue, would any one wonder 1 Ah I if 

 we had only enjoyed the happiness to number this writer 

 among the contributors to our magazine, what a cheerful- 

 ness and easy confidence his presence would impart to our 

 meetings I ... As dear Sam Johnson sits behind the 

 screen, too proud to show his threadbare coat and patches 

 among the more prosperous brethren of his trade, there is no 

 want of dignity in him, in that homely im.age of labour ill 

 I'ewarded, genius as yet unrecognised, independence sturdy 

 and uncomplaining. But Mr. Namelass, behind the pub- 

 lisher's screen uninvited, peering at the company and the 

 meal, catching up scraps of the jokes, and noting down the 

 guests' behaviour and conversation — wh.at a figure is his I 

 Allons, Mr. Nameless 1 Put up your note-book ; walk out 

 of the hall, and leave gentlemen alone who would be private, 

 and wish you no hai'm." — Thackeray in the Itoundahout 

 Paper " On Screens in Dining-rooms." 



[This paragraph, as it stands, would give an unfair idea 

 of Thackeray's strictures. The Saturday I'l'vieiv in 1860 

 was a powerful paper. Those were the best days mentioned 

 by Matthew Arnold in his pi'aise of the American paper 

 The Nation. In the article quoted Thackeray speaks 



of the Saturday Review as piquing itself (" and justly and 

 honourably in the main ") on its gentlemanly as well as its 

 literary character. It was then, moreover, usually manly, 

 though it was always chai'acterised by the weakness indi- 

 cated by declining ever to correct or admit mistakes, to 

 which, in common with all things human, it was liable. 

 We find even a man of science like Darwin, though 

 remarking with reference to a critique in its pages that 

 " One cannot expect fairness in a reviewer, so I do not com- 

 plain &c.," I'ecognising real worth in a Saturday Review 

 criticism of his " Origin of Species." (This seems so strange, 

 now !) It is true that the criticism [not the critique as a 

 whole), though true, did " not at all concern the main argu- 

 ment." Still the change indicated by such evidence of 

 what the <S'. R. once was is startling, even to us who have 

 been able to note its progress. Imagine a paper once so 

 conducted that a Darwin could learn a lesson (on a point of 

 detail) from its pages, reduced to such a point that Sir 

 William Jenner should be spoken of by one of its " young 

 buccaneers " as the inventor of vaccination ! — Ed.] 



BRITISH AND IRISH FAIRIES. 



By Stella Occidens (Mary Proctor). 



When Puck appears and spins him round, 



And glides amid the dance, 

 Behind iiim, with him to rejoice, 



Hundreds of sprites advance. 



■JMONG the superstitious folk in the North 

 of England it is supposed that fairy elves 

 haunt the woodland glens, and on moonlit 

 nights they are to be seen dancing a merry 

 roundelay * on the green sward. If any 

 one has the courage to run in their midst 

 and steal the drinking-glass they use at 

 these festivals, it will bring good luck, 

 " supposing ho can carry it across a running stream." At 

 Edenhall, in Cumberland, a butler, whilst drawing water at 

 a well, was very much surprised at seeing some of these 

 little l)eings amusing them.selves on the grass. They had 

 left their drinking-glass upon the margin of the well, .and 

 he ran away with it. though hotly pursued by the fairies. 

 Finally he outran them, and they vanished crying : — 



If that glass do break or fall. 

 Farewell the luck of Edenhall.t 



Oberon, king of Fairyland, and his wife Titania, held 

 many a moonlight revel in days of yore. On one occasion 

 the tiny royal pair had a dispute, but Oberon called his son 

 Puck to his assistance, and peace was soon restored in 

 Fairyland. Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, was a domestic 

 sprite, like the Scandinavian nisse and the Scotch brownie. 

 He was famous for his merry pranks, so much so that his 

 father threatened to punish him, and the little imp ran away 

 from home. He wandered through the woods, and pre- 

 sently feeling tired, he lay down on the ground and fell 

 asleep. When he awoke he found a scroll lying on the 

 ground. It had been placed there by his father (_)beron, 

 and contained verses written in letters of gold, telling him 

 that he could have all he desired,^ and the power of changing 



* [The word roundelay signifies a round dance as well as a song 

 in which the first strain is repeated. The English spelling alters 

 the true word rondeUt, so as to suggest the idea that a lay or song 

 is necessarily signified, — Ed.] 



f This very ne.arly happened, for one day the Duke of Wharton, 

 liaving- taken a drink out of the magic glass, carelessly let it fall, 

 but the butler caught it in his napkin. 



X The earliest recorded instance of agony advertising : " If Puck 

 will return to his distressed family all will be forgiven and he shall 

 do as he pleases." 



